I think this, what we are doing right now, is one of the most important things for believers – meditation. We just talked about this in Genesis yesterday. It is not good enough to simply read the story of Job, find a fun little lesson and then move on. I don’t think it is good enough to merely say, “Because of Job’s faithfulness God gave him more than he had before” or “Bad things happen sometimes”. Neither of those well packaged thoughts are appropriate for us to accept without further contemplation. There’s just a little too much detail about how everything went down to accept something as easy and attractive. Let’s look a little more into this messy story to find out stuff about us as humans and about God.
We left this story when God offered Satan Job. God brings up Job. Satan doesn’t come in demanding Job and God finally concedes. Nope, God says, “Have you considered my servant Job?” Was this a new thing for God to do? Is He in the business of offering His children to Satan? Well, Satan takes advantage of this and challenges God, “Does Job fear for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.” Hear what Satan is saying here. Isn’t he saying what each of us believe happens when we are faithful to God – we are blessed, protected and love? Our Christian heritage has taught that if you trust God then you will be safe and prosperous. We’ve almost created a business model in the midst of our religion. If you give this much time and effort into this business called Christianity, there is a 300% rate of return. So, if I give in offerings to God, I will get blessed (people preach this weekly and I’m not saying it is entirely false). If I pray enough, nothing bad will happen to me. And it forms a beautiful circle – I worship God to get things then get the things then I worship God because I got it. If we are not careful, we begin to worship God more for the things instead of worshiping because He is worthy.
This is what Satan attacks. He is telling God, “Of course Job serves You, You’ve given him tons of “things”. He pretty much owes You worship because of all the blessings. Take those away and it’s over.” But surely God would never do that. Satan asks for it in verse 11, “But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” Good try Satan. God’s love is too great for that. I’ve learned that since I was a child in Children’s church. God’s desire for my life is comfort and ease. Verse 12, “The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Hmmmmm. The box I’ve wrapped God in is too small. My beliefs are challenged by God’s words. We find out what Satan did: he killed off Job’s livestock and servants (verse 16 is telling when one of Job’s servants tells him, “The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants”. Fire from heaven….) and children. The “rewards” for following God are now gone. What’s the point for Job to continue following God?
Here’s where I have a problem with this story. Job is the only character that we care about. He is the star and we think about how hard it would be to lose so much; really the only thing that would have been hard to lose would have been the children and servants. Livestock is not a huge loss but human life is. Now, the servants were killed by fire and we learn from verse 19 that the children were killed when the house they were in fell on them. Satan’s intent was to hurt Job because he was the “hero” in this “game” he was playing with God. However, to God, Job’s children and servants were just as important and loved as Job. However, God did not tell Satan any limitation on how to torture Job except to not kill Job (I find it funny that Satan didn’t kill the wife. I guess that was part of the punishment – it’s a joke people). With that knowledge it appears that Job was favored above the others. These children and servants had futures bright and planned out by God. They were not a part of this weird game. However, they paid ultimately. And they didn’t just drop dead – they were burned and buried under rubble. They were not simply killed; they suffered death. And, what did that part matter? Job didn’t watch. He was told. They suffered for the simple pleasure of Satan. How could God have approved of this?
More in the future perhaps. Thoughts?
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